The Origins of Chuckie's Fear of Santa
by celrock
Summary: We all know at the very beginning of the episode, The Santa Experience from Season 2, Chuckie has a fear of Santa Clause, but how did this fear originally develop? Obviously from the one person you'd expect to ingrain this into his head, but why not read the story to find out how she upset him this time, at their very first Christmas together, one year prior to the events of The ep


Author's Note: I know, this story here isn't on my list of future releases, but hey, it's Christmas. I told you guys I wasn't putting anything out holiday related this year in terms of a new story, but gotta surprise you guys somehow, don't I? And after watching The Santa Experience this evening on The Splat, I came up with an interesting theory that inspired this small little one-shot. I do hope you enjoy it, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays!

The Origins of Chuckie's Fear of Santa

Summary: We all know at the very beginning of the episode, The Santa Experience from Season 2, Chuckie has a fear of Santa Clause, but how did this fear originally develop? Obviously from the one person you'd expect to ingrain this into his head, but why not read the story to find out how she upset him this time, at their very first Christmas together, one year prior to the events of The Santa Experience.

Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, they're the property of their original creaters. I only own any OC's you don't recognize. Anthony and his father William, are owned by Sovietlollipop.

"And then one night, he comes." Chuckie said in a mysterious tone to his best friend Tommy, as they waited to see Santa Clause at the department store that faitful day their first Christmas together.

"Who comes?" Tommy asked, eagerly curious as usual.

"The scariest guy in the world. Santa Clause!" Chuckie hissed fearfully in a low whisper to his best friend.

Of course, Tommy knew Santa to be the jolly fat guy to bring you presents.

"Chuckie you can't be scared of Santa. He's big and fat and jolly and brings you presents!" Tommy replied in a cheerful tone, ensuring his friend he had nothing to worry about.

"That's not what I heard." Chuckie replied, still in that fearful tone.

Of course, his story got interrupted when Angelica ran up next to see Santa and caused a huge scene with ripping off his beard, but deep down, the two-year-old redhead couldn't bring himself to share with his best friend their first Christmas together where he heard the story. He just, couldn't. Of course, the day drug on. Angelica got a box of toys at the store, she tricked Phil and Lil to trade in two of their favorite items to get two items from her box to give one another for Christmas, and while he and Tommy had come up with a plan to catch Santa to prove to one another their visions of what they thought Santa was like, the redhead couldn't help but notice Angelica wasn't even paying attention to them. Of course, he knew Tommy had his mind set on the plan to trap Santa to prove how nice he was, just as back at his first birthday, all he cared about was getting dogfood so he could be just like Spike, not even noticing it was his birthday, or mentioning it once, but Chuckie couldn't help but remember.

Of course, Tommy's grandpa told them a story about Santa, the whole thing about if you're good, you get toys, but if you're bad, you get coal. While Angelica gulped at hearing this story, Chuckie had heard far worse things. Things he couldn't even bring himself to share with Tommy, Phil and Lil, even after having a flashback that night before falling asleep. Unknown to anybody, Angelica was having a nightmare about Santa bringing her nothing but coal because of the trick she played on Phil and Lil, leaving her feeling a twinge of guilt all through Christmas eve until Santa showed up on Christmas, but Chuckie, lying awake in his crib late that same night, before they were due to head up to the cabin the following day, wasn't having a nightmare exactly, but a flashback, back to the first Christmas he could remember.

No, it wasn't his first Christmas when he was still a baby-baby, shortly before his biological mother passed away, heck, he had no memories of that Christmas, but boy did he have memories of the following Christmas, one year prior to his trip to the cabin, and what would be, two years before his trip to Christmas Land. He was one-years-old at this point, and hadn't really become close friends with Tommy, Phil or Lil yet, as they were only baby-babies at the time, and Tommy didn't even live locally in town, but Angelica lived locally in town, a regular two-year-old blond, and yes, she was not only going through her, "Terrible Two's," but in Chuckie's eyes, she was turning into a, "Terrible Two," especially when she tricked him in believing Santa Clause to be a horrible man.

Unknowing to either one of the kids, Charlotte had to go away on a business trip, that would keep her away for Christmas, leaving Drew and Angelica by themselves for the holidays, and with bad weather expecting to hit the area, Drew didn't feel comfortable driving by himself with his two-year-old daughter either to pay his brother a visit, who he had been fighting with as of late, or to visit his father and his mother, who was sadly dying, not wishing to subject his only daughter to her dying grandmother, who could barely make it to the bathroom on her own at this point now. However, Chas wasn't doing so well this Christmas. It was not only hard for him because this was actually, his first Christmas without Melinda, but he kept thinking about the previous Christmas. Melinda was still alive, so at least she was there to see Chuckie at his first Christmas, but she had to accept a visit from them at the hospital on Christmas day, which sort of, dampened the whole ordeal. No Christmas tree, Melinda didn't feel like eating any holiday treats due to the nausea the Chemo Therapy was causing, and it was cold, making Chas have to bundle up his infant son into the warmest clothes possible. With this being his first Christmas without his wife, and the fact that there had been a salary cutback at his work, he wasn't able to afford as many presents for Chuckie this year. With him and Drew being by themselves for the holidays, with nothing but them and their only children, they agreed for the four of them, to spend the holidays together, and give their kids what few presents they had. It wouldn't be much, but Chas did believe that Christmas began and ended with family, and while his wife was gone, he'd do the best, to make it special for his son. Of course, Angelica, being the excited two-year-old she was, wanted to find a way to get all of the presents for herself, because that's just, how she was. They conveniently met up at the Finster's place on Christmas Eve, where Chas let Drew into the house, and he put his two-year-old daughter into the playpen, where one-year-old Chuckie was playing with a red and white striped ball.

"Hi Angelica." Chuckie happily greeted, as at this time, she was one of the only friends he had, though in truth, he felt it was better to be nice, even if he couldn't exactly call Angelica his friend.

"Hi Chuckie." Angelica cheerfully greeted, in the event her daddy and Chuckie's daddy were still in earshot.

"Are you excited about Christmas? My daddy says Santa's gonna come, and bring lots of presents!" Chuckie cried excitedly, the one-year-old trying to get into the Christmas spirit.

Of course, Angelica knew with her mommy gone and being stuck at the Finsters for Christmas, how on earth would Santa find her here? Realizing this fact that she probably wouldn't be getting any presents, she had to come up with a clever way to sneak Chuckie's presents for herself, so she thought up a story to terrorize the one-year-old redhead, who had been more so afraid of things ever since his mommy passed away, and, she thought it up quick.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up Finster, Santa's not as jolly and bright as the growed ups make him out to be." Angelica said.

"What do you mean Angelica?" Chuckie asked, looking confused.

Angelica then had her own mental flashback to one year prior, the year her uncle William and cousin Anthony visited for the holidays. He was a cousin on her mommy's side of the family, who was roughly a year older than she was, making him two-years-old at the time. While she brushed off the story after getting a boat load of toys for Christmas that year, she never forgot the story that Anthony told her about a kid he knew back home named Avery, who had a burgler break into his house dressed as Santa Clause, who left boxes of bombs under the tree, and on Christmas morning, upon opening the presents, the bombs went off and killed him and his family, and also blew up their house. As scary as the story was at the time, remembering what her cousin had told her, she knew just how to scare Chuckie, because deep down, she thought he looked cute when he was scared, and would give anything to see her one and only friend in fear this holiday season.

"Oh, just, a story I've gotta tell you, about a kid named Avery, who didn't exactly have the bestest encounter with Santa Clause. In fact, thanks to Santa, he disappeared, forever." Angelica said in an evil sounding voice, making Chuckie gulp and trimble with fear, clutching on to his red and white striped ball for support.

Of course, seeing the trembling redhead didn't make Angelica stop, it only made the two-year-old blond, tell the famous tale of Santa Clause passed down to her by her cousin the previous Christmas to the cowardly redhead, all the more.

"Avery was a happy little boy, always doing what his parents told him. Because he was good, he'd be getting lots of presents, or though he thought." Angelica started to explain, as Chuckie had visions of a cute little boy around his age with brown hair, happily playing with his toys, really excited about Christmas coming, as he put ornaments on to the tree and was sitting with his parents, singing Christmas carols.

"Then, it happened. Santa was busy at his workshop, coming up with a plan to make little kids disappear." Angelica continued to narrate, as the scene changed to the North Pole, where Santa and his elves were busy.

"Hmmm, elves, I'd like you to make an aray of explosives." Santa said.

"Why's that?" One of the elves asked.

"Oh for the kids who are interested in doing scientific experiments." Santa lied.

"Well okay, if you say so." The elf said, as he and the other elves, got to work.

"And so, Santa and the elves got the new explosive toys ready for all of the good little girls and boys." Angelica continued to narrate, as we see Santa packing his sleigh with the wrapped packages, full of bombs.

He hitched his reindeer to the sleigh, and took off. Soon, he arrived at Avery's house, landing in the driveway.

"Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas! And a ba, humbug to you too." Santa cackled, as he snuck inside an open downstairs window, as it was extremely warm this Christmas, with his bag of goodies.

"Santa quietly placed the presents under the tree in the sleeping house, the family not suspecting a thing." Angelica narrated, as Santa placed the presents, and quietly snuck back out the open window, out of the house.

"Christmas morning came, and Avery, dressed in his new Reptar pajamas, was really excited! He couldn't wait to open his presents!" Angelica narrated, as the brown headed boy wearing blue Reptar pajamas, got out of bed and ran down the stairs to the living room, really excited to open his presents.

"It's Christmas!" Avery cried, startling his parents awake, who sleepily walked into the living room.

"And so, Avery picked up a beautifully wrapped package in gold and silver paper, tore off the paper, and, ka boom!" Angelica narrated, as everybody saw Avery unwrap his gift, which exploded right in his face.

"The bomb sent off a chain reaction, causing the other presents to explode, the Christmas tree to catch on fire, and before you knew it, Avery, his parents, and their home, were no more." Angelica narrated, as in Chuckie's imagination, he saw the house disappear right before his eyes.

Coming out of the imaginary spot, Chuckie was huttled beneath a blanket, shaking in fear over Angelica's story.

"So remember, don't trust Santa Clause, because you never know what he could bring." Angelica said evily, climbing out of the playpen and sneaking off to find herself some cookies to eat, leaving the child to shake violently beneath his blanket.

Drew was watching the kids while all of this story telling was going on, while Chas went off to do his Christmas shopping, as he had been so depressed over Melinda, that he hadn't really done anything, waiting until the last minute. This only caused him to leave the packages on the counter by accident when leaving the store, and the following morning, he broke down crying, feeling just awful that he had nothing to give Chuckie for Christmas. Though on-the-other-hand, Chuckie was glad that there were no presents under the tree from Santa, and at least, he'd live to see another day and not disappear.

Of course, while neither Chas or Chuckie could ever live to tell their friends the following year what really went on that previous year at Christmas, it did cause Chuckie to develop a huge fear of Santa after that, and for poor Chas, who never had the best Christmases growing up to begin with, and now with him a single parent, his second Christmas without Melinda, well it only made it even more important that their upcoming Christmas at the cabin be extra special where he was concerned, and for Chuckie, he only hoped that maybe his best friend would prove Angelica wrong, even though Tommy had no idea that it was Angelica who made him afraid of Santa, because he couldn't bring himself to tell Tommy the whole story. He had only known Tommy for a few months, and while Tommy was a pretty brave person, if he got him to believe this story of Angelica's, he'd never forgive himself if he made his best friend believe Santa was going to make him disappear.

Coming out of his flashback, recalling how things went down the previous Christmas, as he saw to drifting off to sleep, as he knew he had a long day ahead of him the following day at the cabin, helping his best friend set up Santa traps as soon as they arrived, he figured he'd better keep this memory to himself, and spare his best friend the horrible gory details, that nearly made him want to throw up recalling the story Angelica had told him the previous holiday season.

Well the next day came. Chuckie awoke bright and early with his daddy, the van arrived to pick them up where his friends and families were all packed up and ready to go, and before he knew it, they were off to the cabin to celebrate their very first Christmas together. Chuckie went around the cabin with Tommy to trap Santa, while Angelica felt guilty over the trick she had played on Phil and Lil the previous day. Chuckie was still worried at dinner, really hoping the traps would work, but Tommy ensured him not to worry so much.

Of course, later that night, he had the biggest scare of his life when he saw Santa in the fireplace, only to learn it was only his father, and then it happened. Santa came in the front door, and delivered everybody's presents. Upon opening his gift, finding a nice, toy, that didn't explode in his face, Chuckie was relieved. However, he still couldn't bring himself to tell Tommy the truth, so he showed his gratitude by stating the following.

"You were right Tommy, Santa's not such a bad guy after all." Chuckie said.

"I told ya." Tommy replied.

But deep down, Chuckie had this thought quietly in his mind.

" _I should have knowed Angelica was lying all of this time, and I think from now on, I'll listen to my bestest best friend over believing Angelica, specially if she don't lie to all of us at once._ " Chuckie thought to himself, as he went on to play with his new toys he received from Santa, having the best first Christmas with his friends and family, he ever had.

The End

Author's Note: I know, the story was kind of short, but I thought it would be an excellent explanation of how Chuckie might have grown afraid of Santa, as it sounds like something Angelica might try to do, just, because of who she is. And the part where I had Santa in the story come in through the window, I came up with that as in The Santa Experience episode, when setting traps, neither Tommy nor Chuckie thought he'd come down the chimney, so to keep that cannon, I had him use a different means of getting in and out of the house in the story she told as well. And I thought about making that flashback and thought Chuckie had as bloopers for Rugrat Bloopers, but felt it would be better to have this be its own story, to allow it to stick out a bit more. I know it was super dark, but had anybody told me a story like that as a child, I think I would have been pretty scared of Santa Clause after that too, so, very thankful I didn't grow up around anybody who acted like Angelica, or her even meaner cousin Anthony, who was the first one to tell this story, which, I'll say now, his story was based off of true events of a little boy he knew at daycare named Avery who didn't return after Christmas break, only for the daycare to learn that his family had been murdered by a man dressed as Santa Clause, and overhearing the story, Anthony used it to his advantage to scare every kid he knew about Santa Clause, just, because, well, he's a psychopath and enjoys doing such things. I hope you guys aren't cowering beneath your blankets after reading this, but if you are, I'm very sorry, and I hope you can take a deep breath, realize that it's not true, that it's only a story, and that you can have yourself, a very Merry Christmas.


End file.
